Sex Shop Cinema: Puppet porn, butter-for-lube and more (NSFW)

Whether you are a raincoat-wearing heavy-breather, an academic seeking fodder for educational frottage or a run-of-the-mill cineaste, beware: You had better be of age and hope the city authorities do not bust up this festival. The Denver Film Society has curated a lineup of erotic films sure to fan your flames of desire and debate -- so grab your favorite lube and check out our handy guide to the eleven films in the DFS Sex Shop Cinema.

If you want to see Marlon Brando in a butter-for-lube, anal romp with Maria Schneider, a notorious cinematic moment shrouded in controversy and decried by both performers, look no further than Bernardo Bertolucci's morbid, sex-stained art-house classic Last Tango in Paris, in which desperate, anonymous sex fails to cure a death-driven, existential crisis.

2. Boogie Nights (1997)

In memory of Philip Seymour Hoffman, the FilmCenter has added Paul Thomas Anderson's second feature film to the Sex Shop Cinema roster. Boogie Nights, based loosely on the story of porn-star John Holmes, is a star-studded exploration of Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) and the drugs, drama and gargantuan penis that helped him fly toward the sun and plummet to the gutter.

3. Bud Townsend's Alice in Wonderland (1976)

Do not bring the kiddos when you venture into this rabbit hole; Bud Townsend's Alice in Wonderland is definitely not the Disney classic. In this soft-core porn musical, Playboy cover girl Christine DeBell stars as Alice, a virginal librarian opening her mind and spreading her legs for a song-tastic sexual education from the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, Tweedledee, Tweedledum and, yes, even Flesh Gordon.

4. The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies

Wiktor Ericsson double-stuffs the documentary The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies with scenes from sexploitation master Joe Sarno's artful, erotic films. These pornos are as moody as they are steamy; it is no wonder that Annie Sprinkle dubs Sarno the Ingmar Bergman of porn. This documentary, worthy of its subject, depicts Sarno at life's twilight: tender, hopeful and sexually charged.

5. Johnny Minotaur (1971) If any Sex Shop Cinema film might provoke city authorities to shut down the festival, it is Johnny Minotaur. Narrated by the late North American Man/Boy Love Association member and poet Allen Ginsberg, Johnny Minotaur is a surrealist, homoerotic film featuring watermelon masturbation, group showers and young men -- very young men -- doing what young men do. Legal? Dubious. Scandalous? Absolutely. "It's a brand-new print that the Museum of Modern Art had commissioned," says Denver Film Society programming manager Ernie Quiroz. "When they had it made, they didn't know what it was. Some of the museum higher-ups took a look. It had some very risqué scenes with young-looking boys in homoerotic settings. They decided not to release it, and we're going to be one of the few venues to show a new print of this film."

6. Showgirls (1995)

A '90s, boob-filled melodrama, Showgirls tells the tale of a talented young dancer struggling to make it as a high-class Las Vegas showgirl. She fails and finds herself stuck in the one gig she can get: grinding drunks in a seedy strip club. Will she ever get her chance to dance like she wants to? Quiroz looks forward to playing drinking games with Film Society audiences during "the horribly, wonderful film Showgirls," as part of the Films on Tap series.

7. Moebius (2013)

For anybody wracked with guilt from watching too many of these films, self-flagellate with Moebius. In this movie, a mom tries to castrate her husband, and when she fails, she slices into her kid's nether-region instead. That is just the beginning of the action. The rest of the film depicts brutal sexual assault, castration anxiety, bullying, jail and chilling family angst. Suffer, cringe and weep.

8. Let My Puppets Come (1976)

If you are hot for puppets, satires of the porn industry and musicals, check out Let My Puppets Come, a raunchy feature made by the director of Deep Throat. Marionette money-shots and bestiality are just two of the gags to gag on in this wannabe-Muppet porno.

9. A Labor of Love (1975)

What happens when an unskilled, earnest guy sets out to make a movie and finds himself forced by his financial backers to shoot hardcore sex instead? In A Labor of Love, a forgotten cinema-vérité gem, documentary filmmakers Robert Flaxman and Daniel Goldman follow a young filmmaker's awkward baby steps in porn production.

10. Deep Throat (1972) Quiroz says that the hottest ticket seller at Sex Shop Cinema is Deep Throat, starring Linda Lovelace as herself. In the film, Lovelace's clitoris is located in the back of her throat; through fellatio, men please her by prodding her oral abyss. In the '70s, "everyone wanted to see Deep Throat, and if you didn't see it, you were out of the loop," he says.

11. Inside Deep Throat (2005) Deep Throat brewed a perfect storm of politicians, preachers and feminists thumping pulpits and rallying against the film. Inside Deep Throat explores how the original film was made and the political turmoil it spawned.

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If you're gunning for some heady exploration of...head, check out Sex Shop Cinema at the Sie FilmCenter, which runs Thursday, February 13 through Sunday, February 16. You can get tickets and more information at the center's website or by calling 303-595-3456.

Kyle Harris quit making documentaries and started writing when he realized that he could tell hundreds of stories in the same amount of time it takes to make one movie. Now, hooked on the written word, he's Westword’s Culture Editor and writes about music and the arts.